If it seems like that long pass by Wofford on fourth down to set up a late touchdown in the game last week against Appalachian State was basically a Hail Mary, it’s because, well, that’s exactly what was called in the huddle.

The Terriers faced a fourth-and-34 at their own 45-yard line. There just aren’t a lot of things in the triple-option playbook for that situation.

“Everybody said, ‘What’s the best play we have for fourth-and-32?’ ” Wofford head coach Mike Ayers said. “Well, it was a Hail Mary.”

So quarterback Michael Weimer heaved up a deep pass for 6-foot-3 sophomore wide receiver Wade Francis, who had simply run down the right sideline into double- or-triple coverage and turned around to wait for the ball. Francis went up in traffic and grabbed it. The 49-yard play set Wofford up a touchdown.

“I would say we were the only team in America that made a fourth-and-32,” Ayers said. “But you have to make those second-and-threes, third-and-fours and fourth-and-twos.”

About This Blog

Todd Shanesy is an award-winning sports writer who has been twice honored nationally by the Associated Press and more than two dozen times by the South Carolina Press Association. He is a native of Troy, Ohio, and studied journalism at Marshall University (1987 graduate). Shanesy is a former sports editor of the Florence (S.C.) Morning News and has been with the Spartanburg Herald-Journal since 1991.

Follow him two ways on Twitter: @ToddShanesySHJ and @TerrierTracker (for everything Wofford-related).